Too enlightened for belief in the monstrous notion of Don Sebastian’s _spiritual_ re-appearance in a _tangible body_ (for Gonsalva acknowledged having grasped his garments and his hand,) De Castro felt confident that his royal master had really appeared in Lisbon; but of the fate that had befallen him, he dared not think: it was too probable that he had fallen a victim to his uncle or to his cousin. By suspecting the former, Don Emanuel was guilty of injustice: the aged King had been at that period scarcely more than a cypher; he was governed by a ministry (the creatures of Philip,) who kept from his knowledge every rumour of his nephew’s existence, prevented any subject of whatever rank from addressing him save through their medium, and finally dismissed Don Emanuel to Brazil, and allured Gaspar to prison, without disclosing to the half-childish monarch their motives for either action. All that Gaspar knew of these events he briefly detailed, ere he indulged his own private feelings by inquiring the situation of his orphan sisters: Sebastian’s donation to them gave peace to his fraternal anxiety. Not unmoved did the King of Portugal hear the awful catastrophe of Donna Gonsalva; his agitation however, did not appear outwardly in all its force, for horror and amazement locked up the usual expressions of pity, and it was only by the fitful variation of his complexion, and the nervous startings of his body, that Kara Aziek’s heart felt the pangs which wrung his:--she saw that he struggled to hide his suffering from her observation. Tenderly solicitous to divert him of the apprehension which made him thus dissemble, she approached behind his chair, and bending over him, rested her lips upon his forehead, then pressing his hand, whispered softly, “I should not love thee, if thou didst not pity her.” Sebastian wrapt his arms round Aziek without speaking; and his heart, thus permitted by her to lament one whom he had formerly idolized, opened itself to a moment of weakness.--Till now, an ocean of time seemed to have flowed between those days, and these present; one instant swept this away, and blended the two periods together: Sebastian saw Gonsalva again in all her beauty and apparent innocence; again he felt the successive thrills of resentment and transport, of misery and delight, which her capricious character used to excite in him; he remembered how he had doated,--he felt how much he now contemned! Penetrated with a sense of the lamentable uncertainty of all human goods, and of the yet sadder change which circumstances force our hearts to make in their affections and in their wishes, he burst into tears, convulsively pressed Aziek to his breast, then hastily relinquishing her, would have hurried away, had she not gently detained him.